I came across this news story and thought that it was very exciting! As faithful blog readers know, OSU is hosting the International Baccalaureate World Student Conference next week! We learned that six participants of the IB World Conference are planning to bike to get to campus and will be joined by the OSU Cycling Team for the last 20 miles of the trek.

They turned their trip to Oregon State University into a fundraiser for the IB program global community service project. What a great idea! You can donate to their fund raising efforts by visiting their school’s website at: http://cottonwoodclassical.org/

]]>http://oregonstate.edu/admissions/blog/2010/08/05/ib-world-conference-update-students-bike-1600-miles-to-get-to-osu/feed/2International Baccalaureate conversationhttp://oregonstate.edu/admissions/blog/2008/10/21/international-baccalaureate-conversation/
http://oregonstate.edu/admissions/blog/2008/10/21/international-baccalaureate-conversation/#commentsTue, 21 Oct 2008 18:00:54 +0000http://oregonstate.edu/admissions/blog/?p=931I came across this interesting op-ed at the Washington Post. The gist of the opinion is that most schools around the U.S. have not given IB the same consideration as the more long-standing AP exam for advanced credit while in high school.

American education has a tattered reputation in many respects, except for our colleges and universities. They are world leaders in quality and accessibility. The desire to provide our children the best in higher education unites Americans in a unique way. So it dismays me to report that on one issue, the leaders of nearly every four-year college in the country have shown appalling ignorance and hypocrisy. They say they want high schools to provide challenging courses for students thinking of college, but at the same time they discriminate against the most demanding college-level program in high school: International Baccalaureate.

It is important to note that AP, like IB, is a terrific program, well worth college credit for students who do well on its exams. But many experts say IB is more challenging. IB puts more emphasis on analysis and writing, including requiring a 4,000-word essay for students seeking a full IB diploma. IB final exams are five hours long and rarely have multiple-choice questions, whereas AP exams are three hours and about half multiple choice.